The Internet has enabled interconnection of different computer networks all over the world. The ability to effectively protect and maintain stable computers and systems, however, presents a significant obstacle for component manufacturers, system designers, and network operators. This obstacle is made even more complicated due to the continually-evolving array of tactics exploited by malicious software authors. Malicious software authors create malicious software (“malware”) to disrupt or stop computer operations, steal information, gain unauthorized access to system resources, and conduct other unauthorized abusive, hostile, intrusive, or annoying activities. Malware continues to evolve with new malware objects being developed potentially exposing computers and systems every day.
System administrators and security product providers have developed a number of malware detection, security assessment, firewalls, security policy enforcement tools, and other security products for monitoring, scanning, and protecting computing systems against malware, viruses, and other threats. As security products mature to more satisfactorily meet the challenges present in more traditional personal computing and enterprise computing environments, accessing and using computing assets evolve introducing new challenges for security administrators, product and service providers. For instance, cloud computing has emerged as a popular alternative to maintaining a dedicated set of hard computing assets, allowing individuals and enterprises to access supplemental and scalable computing assets temporarily and on-demand. The use of virtual environments realized using cloud computing infrastructure are also expanding, including the use of virtual machines in cloud and server pool environments that can be selectively turned “on” as needed in connection with the temporary scaling up of a particular computer system or a user's computing needs.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.